Homemade Carpet Cleaner

I’ve had this embarrassing stain hiding under my couch for three months. When it happened, I quickly cleaned it with some water and a towel. I clearly did not use the right tools and it’s slowly become this deeper and darker stain. Over the weekend, I finally got a few things out of the kitchen and made it go permanently away. Here’s how:

Jen, have you tried cleaning your furniture with this? My furniture began looking dingy overnight and it’s driving me nuts I am tempted to mix a bleach solution which we all know where that would take us! I have never allowed my kids to eat out of the kitchen (I know..bad mom) but I still have no regrets with that one because the second I gave in was a disaster. We live in a very small town so the cleaners say it is to far to travel for one household. I do have a steam cleaner for both carpet/furniture. I just want a realllllly good cleaner (the first time). Any solutions?

Hi I wanted to know if this solution would take away bad odors from the carpet ? My niece threw up all over the carpet and even though my husband cleaned it with every cleaner we have the smell just won’t go away…I need help and I don’t want to buy an expensive cleaner so please let me know

Stephanie – I would think the baking soda would have helped with that. Personally, I would try sprinkling some on over night and then vacuuming it up in the morning to see if that helps neutralize the odor.

Professional carpet cleaner here. 🙂 This is great but use the detergent (Dr. Bronner’s would work great too) in solution first then use the vinegar. The detergent will work better on its own (high ph, leaves residue) then the vinegar (low ph) will act as a neutralizing rinse. The sticky residue is what makes a spot get bigger and darker. Baking soda is always a good household cleaner. I suggested using it to get vomit smell off / out of a customer’s leather couch and she called me back to say it had worked real well! Another trick for a deep stain (I used this for dog vomit) is to put down your cleaning solution, then towels, then plastic, then a box of books. The weight causes the stain to wick up into the toweling without any harsh scrubbing of the fibers (something you want to avoid!). HTH, Cecilia

To someone who asked if this would take out bad smells…..my cat had been recently peeing on my leather couch (Grrrrr)…and I tried EVERYTHING to take the smell out. The thing that worked was peroxide and baking soda….and i poured it on a rag and left it on the couch overnight. It took the smell COMPLETELY out. Now….mind you….this (BAD!) cat had been doing this for weeks…..so it was not just a one time thing. I’m assuming it was the baking soda, but mixing peroxide and baking soda makes a sort of oxy solution, which is supposed to work wonders for stains!

Hi Tiffany … I was in a big problem before i got these blog… I used some chemicals on my carpet and it ruin everything but the spot was still there … Your Blog was a blessing for me … i used these all spots gone …. but my carpet is not so good anymore because of that chemicals .. i am looking forward for any post that can help me gaining my carpet back as new one …Thank you

Yes! Thank you! Much to my husband’s dismay I have let the kids eat in our “movie room” which has light colored carpet. After spills from root beer, chocolate milk, suckers, ketchup, etc. the carpet looked AWFUL. We are having Thanksgiving at our house and are too broke to get the carpet cleaned. But this did the trick! Hallelujah! Super gross stained kid carpet now looks almost spotless (a few shadows of stains remain, but are almost invisible). Thank you thank you thank you! Now…hopefully it won’t smell like vinegar next week!

Thanks! I used your advice and have some pretty impressive results. I had one particularly bad carpet that I just couldn’t get clean – I ended up using carpet cleaning sutton coldfield because they don’t use harsh chemicals and do a great job, but for a lot of carpets I can use your advice in this post so thank you 🙂

I am so anxious to try this. My cat throws up -and insists he do it on the wall-to-wall carpeting (UGH!). I have bought every stain remover I can think of and nothing works..very well. I will give this a try and follow up with results. I have carpeting the color of the one on this blog and it’s not old :(.

Great recipe! Don’t forget that regular carpet cleaning is a must to ensure you get the maximum life span out of your carpet. Traffic areas can quickly deteriorate if regular vacuum or steam cleaning is not preformed.